Alert Me Administrator Documentation

Alert Me

Create Alert – Administrator & User Experience Guide

Updated for Item-Level Alerts, Alert Templates, WYSIWYG email editing, folder scope, and summary delivery.

Create Alert uses a four-step workflow: trigger, conditions, delivery, and alert details.

Purpose: This guide explains the end-user Create Alert experience in Alert Me and documents the configuration choices administrators should understand when supporting users.

Guide Contents

Section	Topic
1	Create Alert overview
2	Creating alerts from SharePoint
3	Step 1 – Choose Alert Type & Trigger
4	Step 2 – Filter Conditions
5	Step 3 – Delivery Options
6	Using Alert Templates
7	WYSIWYG editor and tokens
8	Step 4 – Alert Details
9	Manage My Alerts
10	Quick-reference behaviors and best practices

UI note: The screenshots in this guide reflect the current Alert Me experience shown in version 1.26.7.10. Labels and options may vary slightly as the product is updated.

1. Create Alert Overview

The Create Alert experience allows users to define alerts for SharePoint lists and document libraries, apply optional filtering, and control when and how notifications are delivered. Alerts are owned by the user who creates them and are processed by Alert Plus backend services for scalable tenant-wide execution.

Step	Purpose	Typical user decision
1. Alert Type & Trigger	Defines the alert scope and event that causes evaluation.	What should I monitor, and what event should cause the alert to run?
2. Filter Conditions	Limits alerts to items that match business criteria.	Which items actually qualify?
3. Delivery Options	Controls schedule, recipients, notification content, and template use.	Who should receive the alert, when, and what should the email say?
4. Alert Details	Names and describes the alert for later management.	How will I recognize this alert in Manage My Alerts?

2. Creating Alerts from SharePoint

Users can create alerts from the Alert Me web part at the list or library level, or directly from a specific SharePoint item, document, or folder when Item Level Alerts are enabled.

2.1 Item Context Menu

The SharePoint item context menu can expose two Bamboo actions: Create Bamboo Alert and Manage Bamboo Alerts. This allows the user to work with alerts without first opening the full Alert Me web part.

The SharePoint item menu includes Create Bamboo Alert and Manage Bamboo Alerts when the feature is enabled.

1. Select the ellipses (…) for a list item, document, or folder.
2. Select Create Bamboo Alert.
3. Alert Me opens with the selected object already scoped as the alert target.
4. Complete the remaining alert configuration and select Save Alert.

2.2 Ribbon Bar

A user can also select a single item with the SharePoint checkbox and choose the Bamboo alert command from the ribbon bar.

Important: Only one item may be selected when creating an Item Level Alert from the ribbon bar. If multiple items are selected, Alert Me will not allow the user to create an item-level alert using this method.

3. Step 1 – Choose Alert Type & Trigger

Step 1 defines what is being monitored and what activity causes the alert to run. The available controls depend on whether the alert targets a SharePoint List, a Document Library, or a specific item.

3.1 SharePoint Lists

For a SharePoint List, Alert Type is set to List and the user chooses the event directly.

List alerts present the Event dropdown directly in Step 1.

Event	Purpose
When an item is created	Runs when a new list item is added.
When an item is modified	Runs when an existing list item is changed.
When an item is created or modified	Runs for either a new item or a change to an existing item.
When an item meets condition	Runs when the item satisfies the filter criteria configured in Step 2.
When an item is deleted	Runs when an item is deleted.

3.2 Document Libraries

Document Library alerts include additional controls for folder scope and alert behavior before the user selects the event.

Alert Type controls whether the alert is limited to the current folder or includes subfolders.

Alert Type	Behavior
Items in this folder	Monitors items in the selected folder only.
Items in this folder and subfolders	Monitors items in the selected folder and all nested subfolders.

Alert Behavior

Alert Behavior controls whether Alert Plus should react to normal library items or to folders themselves. In the standard Items mode, documents and folders are treated as items for alert processing. Folder-only behavior can be used when the business requirement is to monitor changes to the folder structure while ignoring the contents inside those folders.

Document Library behavior: SharePoint may update folder metadata when content inside a folder changes. Alert Plus suppresses the additional folder update alert that would otherwise create a duplicate notification. A folder that is itself created can still generate an alert when the selected behavior and event apply.

Event

Current Event choices include created, modified, created or modified, meets condition, and deleted.

3.3 Item Level Alerts

Item Level Alerts monitor one specific list item, document, or folder. Because the target already exists, the available event choices are intentionally narrower than list- or library-level alerts.

For an Item Level Alert, the current choices are When an item is modified and When an item meets condition.

Event	When to use it
When an item is modified	Notify when the selected item, document, or folder changes.
When an item meets condition	Notify when the selected object satisfies one or more conditions defined in Step 2.

3.4 Recurring Alerts for Condition-Based Triggers

Condition-based alerts can be configured to re-trigger while the condition remains true.

Setting	Behavior
Set Recurring Alert = No (default)	The alert fires once when the condition is met. It will not send again unless the condition changes and is met again.
Set Recurring Alert = Yes	The alert continues to evaluate and can send again while the condition remains true.
Re-Trigger Every (Days)	Appears when recurring alerts are enabled. Enter a minimum of 1 day; timing is calculated from the last time the alert was sent.

Example: Use a recurring condition alert to notify a user every 7 days while a task remains overdue.

4. Step 2 – Filter Conditions (Optional)

Filter Conditions refine which items actually qualify for an alert. Conditions are optional for event-based alerts, but When an item meets condition requires at least one condition. Multiple conditions can be added; all configured logic must be satisfied according to the condition builder shown in the UI.

Column type	Supported operators / input
Text	Equals; Does Not Equal; Starts With. Contains and Ends With are not supported in this release due to Microsoft Graph API limitations.
Number / Currency	Equals; Does Not Equal; Greater Than; Less Than; Greater Than or Equals; Less Than or Equals.
Date / Date Time	Relative date choices evaluated when the alert runs; there is no static date picker in the current release.
Person / Group	Is; Is Not. Values are selected through the SharePoint People Picker for the current site context.

4.1 Relative Date Options

• Is on the day the alert runs (Today).
• Is within the next 2 days (from run date).
• Is within the next 5 days (from run date).
• Is within the next 7 days (from run date).
• Is within the next 30 days (from run date).
• Is before the run date (past dates).

Why relative dates matter: Date filters move automatically as time progresses, making them useful for overdue items, upcoming deadlines, expirations, and other rolling date scenarios without requiring users to edit the alert every day.

5. Step 3 – Delivery Options

Delivery Options define how and when notifications are sent, who receives them, and how the email is composed. The section changes dynamically based on the selected schedule.

5.1 Send Immediately

Send Immediately is designed for time-sensitive alerts. Alert events are evaluated on the Alert Plus processing cycle, and each qualifying event generates its own notification.

Immediate delivery includes recipients, subject, rich-text body, token selectors, and the Populate from Template button.

Option	Description
Alert Schedule	Send Immediately.
Notification Delivery	Send via E-mail in the current release.
Alert Status	Enabled or Disabled; disabling pauses delivery without deleting the alert.
To	Prefilled with the logged-in user and editable.
CC	Optional; multiple addresses may be separated by commas.
Alert Email Subject	Supports static text and dynamic tokens.
Alert Email Body	WYSIWYG rich-text content with token support.

Processing cadence: Immediate alerts are evaluated and sent on the Alert Plus processing cycle, currently every 15 minutes. Each qualifying event can generate a separate notification.

5.2 Daily / Weekly Summary

Summary alerts consolidate multiple alert events into one email. Users select the days and time when the summary should be delivered.

Summary delivery adds day and time selection plus separate Header, Body, and Footer editors.

• Time specifies when the summary is sent. The current release supports summary execution on the hour.
• Days can be daily, weekly, weekdays only, or a custom combination.
• The Header appears once at the top of the summary email.
• The Body repeats for each alert event included in the summary.
• The Footer appears once at the bottom of the summary email.

6. Using Alert Templates

Alert Templates are designed to make alert creation faster and more consistent. After the user has selected the alert scope, event, and delivery schedule, the Populate from Template button can fill in a recommended notification and alert description based on the current configuration.

Goal: A user should be able to select the trigger, choose a delivery schedule, populate a template, review the generated content, and save the alert with minimal manual authoring.

6.1 How to Populate a Template

1. Complete Step 1 by selecting the Alert Type / scope and Event.
2. Add any required Filter Conditions in Step 2.
3. In Step 3, choose Send Immediately or Daily / Weekly Summary and configure recipients and schedule details.
4. Select Populate from Template.
5. Review the populated email content and the Alert Name / Alert Description in Step 4.
6. Edit any generated text, formatting, recipients, or tokens as needed.
7. Select Save Alert.

6.2 What the Template Populates

Delivery type	Fields populated from the template
Send Immediately	Alert Email Subject; Alert Email Body; Alert Name; Alert Description.
Daily / Weekly Summary	Alert Email Subject; Alert Email Summary Header; Alert Email Body; Alert Email Summary Footer; Alert Name; Alert Description.

Templates are context-aware. The recommended content is selected using the alert context (List, Document Library, or Item Level), the selected Event, and the delivery style. This allows the wording and tokens to match the scenario more closely than a single generic message.

Editable by design: Populating a template is a starting point, not a locked format. Users can modify the subject, body, summary sections, alert name, and description before saving.

6.3 Template Naming and Description

Templates also provide a default Alert Name and Alert Description so the saved alert is easier to find later in Manage My Alerts. The default name is intentionally descriptive of the trigger and alert context. Because Alert Plus also stores the target URL with the alert, users can distinguish alerts tied to different locations even when similar names are used.

Best practice: If a user expects to create several alerts with the same trigger, edit the populated Alert Name before saving to include a business purpose, folder, list, document, or other meaningful qualifier.

7. WYSIWYG Editor and Token Support

Alert Me includes a WYSIWYG editor for alert email content. Users can apply common formatting directly in the editor without writing HTML. The editor is available for the Alert Body and, for summary alerts, the Header and Footer.

• Use the editor toolbar to format text, alignment, lists, links, tables, and other supported rich content.
• Use the Select token dropdown next to a supported field to insert dynamic list, item, or site values.
• For summary alerts, the Body has the full event-level token context because it repeats once for each event. Header and Footer token choices are more limited because those sections appear only once per summary.

7.1 Recipient Tokens (To / CC)

Recipient fields can use Person / User column names enclosed in curly brackets. Example: {TaskOwner}. Recipient tokens are resolved when the alert runs.

• The token must match the internal field name.
• There is no recipient-token dropdown in the current release.
• One way to discover the generated token format is to insert the field into the email body and copy the token.
• Multiple tokens and email addresses can be combined and separated by commas.
• If the referenced Person / User field is empty, no recipient is added for that token.

7.2 Deleted Items and Tokens

Important: When an alert is triggered by deletion, SharePoint removes the item and its associated data. Dynamic item tokens therefore may be empty in the notification. This is a SharePoint platform limitation rather than an Alert Plus template issue.

8. Step 4 – Alert Details

Alert Details identify the alert for later management. These fields are especially important when a user has multiple alerts across several lists, libraries, folders, or items.

Field	Description / best practice
Alert Name	Searchable and sortable in Manage My Alerts. Use a concise, descriptive name that explains the trigger and purpose. Alert Templates can prepopulate this field.
Alert Description	Free-form explanation that helps the user remember why the alert exists. Alert Templates can prepopulate this field.
List URL	Stored automatically with the alert so the user can identify the target location.

9. Manage My Alerts

Manage My Alerts provides the user with a searchable list of saved alerts and key operational information such as the target URL, event, last run, status, author, and available actions.

Manage My Alerts makes Alert Name and Description important for quickly distinguishing similar alerts.

• Use Search to locate alerts by the information displayed in the grid.
• Use descriptive names and descriptions to make similar alerts easy to distinguish.
• Review Last Ran and Last Ran Status when troubleshooting delivery.
• Use the available Actions to edit or delete an alert.

10. Quick Reference and Best Practices

Scenario	Recommended configuration
Notify on every new list item	List → When an item is created → Send Immediately.
Notify on documents added anywhere below a folder	Document Library → Items in this folder and subfolders → Items → When an item is created.
Monitor folder structure only	Document Library → folder scope as needed → Folders Only / ignore contents → choose the relevant event.
Watch one document for changes	Create Bamboo Alert from the document context menu → Item Level → When an item is modified.
Send a digest instead of individual emails	Daily / Weekly Summary → select day(s) and time → use Header / Body / Footer.
Create an alert quickly with consistent wording	Choose trigger and delivery settings → Populate from Template → review / edit → Save Alert.
Recurring overdue reminder	When an item meets condition → relative date filter → recurring alert enabled → set Re-Trigger Every (Days).

Documentation maintenance: When screenshots are refreshed in future releases, update both the field labels in the surrounding text and the corresponding quick-reference tables so the guide remains aligned with the UI.